When you watch the anime, do you notice the background in the anime? Recently, the Japanese variety show invited several senior background teachers who have been drawing backgrounds for animation for many years to chat with well-known voice actor Uesaka Tsuneyoshi (上坂すみれ) and others about the behind-the-scenes story of the profession of background teacher.
The saddest thing for them is that each background has to be painted for more than ten hours, but it is often only 3 seconds when it is actually broadcast. Even when the director found that the animation time could not block the lines, the first to cut the background shot was always cut
Japan's TV Asahi's variety show "タモリ倶楽部" recently invited three animation background artists, as well as well-known voice actor Uesaka Andi, who used to play an animator in the series, to talk about the profession of animation background engineer.
The show invited 3 animated background engineers
Mr. Yusuke Takeda, who has 30 years of seniority and belongs to the background studio "Bamboo"
Graduated from Musashino Fine Arts University, Miss Yuki Maeda, a background studio "STUDIO EASTER"
Mr. Tomohiro Kuroda, who claims to be a lonely background teacher and belongs to the veteran animation company "J.C.STAFF"
There are also well-known voice actors Uesaka and Akira Kawashima, who once played an animator
The program first asked 3 background teachers to share their proud background works: Mr. Takeda's proud background is from the 2020 movie "I Want to Cry I Put on the Mask of a Cat"
Miss Maeda's proud background comes from the 2017 episode "Black Clover"
Incidentally, Uesaka had auditioned for this work but was brushed off!
Mr. Kuroda's proud background comes from the "Magical Banned Books Catalog" that began airing in 2008.
Mr. Kuroda also drew a special background for the show
After reading the proud works of the background teachers, I will ask you to take turns to talk about the bitterness you feel in this job.
Mr. Takeda: "When I introduced myself to working on the background of painting, people's reactions were very subtle."
Mr. Takeda said that every time he told everyone that he was an animation background engineer, people couldn't understand what he was doing, so it was difficult to react, even Mr. Takeda's parents could not understand.
Mr. Takeda later said that he was an animation background engineer, but only said that he was an "animator", but this also brought another kind of trouble. That is, whenever others hear that he is an animator, they will want to ask him to draw a specific character, but the background artist will only draw the background!
Miss Maeda: "Even if it takes a whole day to draw the background, it will only broadcast for 3 seconds."
Miss Maeda felt that the saddest thing was that it took more than ten hours to draw the background, often only a few seconds, and even often cut because of the need to adjust the time, there is a term in the animation industry called "BG ONLYCUT".
The so-called "BG ONLY CUT" is the beginning of each episode or the transition scene, the entire picture is only the background shot
Once the director finds that there is not enough time, he usually starts with this kind of shot, and Uesaka also says that she has actually met many times.
Miss Maeda: "When the celebration banquet was held, the background teacher felt uncomfortable."
Miss Maeda also said that because the background teachers are all introverts who are less talkative and introverted, every time the animation work is celebrated, there is no way to mingle with the director, voice actors or other animators. Even if a group of background teachers get together, they are completely high, and the background teachers can only be the "background" when they celebrate the feast.
Uesaka also said that she felt that the background master's voice was too small to hear clearly when he gave a speech at the celebration banquet.
The background engineer is a group of people who can't fit into the crowd.
Mr. Takeda: "It's painful to meet wild characters."
Mr. Takeda then suggested that the personality of the character will also affect the difficulty of the background engineer's work, such as the wild character who often enters the room without closing the door, or throws things away
In this way, the background master even has to draw the scenery outside the door, or the changes in the clutter in the room.
Letting the sunlight outside the window shine so brightly that only a piece of white is a lazy trick often used by background engineers.
Mr. Kuroda: "I feel very tired when I look at the realistic scenery."
Mr. Kuroda talks about his occupational disease, that is, he will continue to study the realistic scenery from the perspective of the background teacher, resulting in being tired when shopping, and Mr. Kuroda will always want to correct the realistic scenery when he sees it
Take the view from this building
The overlap of the two buildings upset him
Either just stack a little more or don't overlap, and it feels annoying to just fold a little bit like that.
Miss Maeda: "I'll always take data photos when I walk on the road."
In the end, Miss Maeda said that she also had occupational diseases, that is, every time she went to the street, she would take pictures and take pictures! And the other two also have this symptom, and will shoot all kinds of things everywhere as a reference for the background of the painting
Miss Maeda especially likes to photograph the "back of things"
Mr. Kuroda especially likes to shoot "billboards"
Mr. Takeda especially likes to shoot "rust marks"